title: Heavy metal pollution in coastal areas of South China: a review.
abstract: Coastal areas of South China face great challenges due to heavy metal contamination caused by rapid urbanization and industrialization. In this paper, more than 90 articles on levels, distributions, and sources of heavy metals in sediments and organisms were collected to review the status of heavy metal pollution along coastal regions of South China. The results show that heavy metal levels were closely associated with local economic development. Hong Kong and the Pearl River Estuary were severely contaminated by heavy metals. However, concentrations of heavy metals in sediments from Hong Kong have continually decreased since the early 1990 s. High levels of heavy metals were found in biota from Lingdingyang in Guangdong province. Mollusks had higher concentrations of heavy metals than other species. Human health risk assessments suggested that levels of heavy metals in some seafood from coastal areas of South China exceeded the safety limit.
authors.affiliation: CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Marine Bio-resources and Ecology, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510301, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
authors.forename: Shuai-Long
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Xiang-Rong
authors.initials: XR
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Yu-Xin
authors.initials: YX
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Jin-Ling
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Hua-Bin
authors.initials: HB
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D002681:China; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D063366:Estuaries; D019216:Metals, Heavy / Q000032:analysis*; D012623:Seawater / Q000737:chemistry*; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis*; D014877:Water Pollution, Chemical / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
chemical_list: D019216:Metals, Heavy; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical
keywords: Coastal area; Health risk assessment; Heavy metals; Pollution; South China